by David P. Greisman

There used to be just one major boxing match scheduled for all of October. Now there is none.

The cupboard was already rather barren. We would’ve needed to wait until the end of the month for that one big fight: the rematch between heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and the man he dethroned, Wladimir Klitschko.

But Fury has pulled out of the rematch due to reported struggles with his mental health. That’s more serious a matter than the first-world problems we may complain about due to the postponement — that the wait for big-time boxing will now be one week longer, until early November and the pay-per-view featuring Manny Pacquiao against welterweight titleholder Jessie Vargas.

That’s five straight weekends without much to see — a weekly boxing columnist’s worst nightmare and a weekly boxing columnist’s girlfriend’s dream come true.

The lull in action in this dead October is particularly disappointing after a superb September in which several of boxing’s best were in action. It’s even more disappointing when you recall that there originally were notable bouts proposed to take place next month but have not yet come to fruition.

Boxing still exists and should still be supported even when the fights aren’t highly anticipated and the fighters aren’t highly accomplished. There are still smaller televised shows on beIN Sports, Estrella TV, Telemundo and UniMas, even if the Sweet Science is otherwise unseen on HBO, Showtime, ESPN and the many channels typically airing “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcasts.

Those smaller shows are smaller for a reason, however. Our time is limited. So are the programs’ budgets. We don’t watch everything. We can’t watch everything. The most hardcore may spend many of their waking hours looking on as people pummel each other. The rest of us try to keep from going into complete withdrawal until we can get our next good fix.

To find those meager scraps, one must look outside of this barren cupboard and head into the international market.

That’s what’s increasingly happening in this era of technology and piracy. It’s not hard to catch foreign fights live or to find them uploaded shortly afterward.

So this Saturday, you can begin your day with heavyweights in New Zealand, when contender Joseph Parker continues his campaign toward a title shot by taking on Alexander Dimitrenko, whose only losses came against Eddie Chambers and Kubrat Pulev. You can watch a pair of fringe light heavyweights, Juergen Braehmer and Nathan Cleverly, meet in Germany. And you can set your sights on Norway, which will host a rematch between the best female fighter in the world, Cecilia Braekhus, and Anne Sophie Mathis.

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It’s hard to get too excited about the fights on Oct. 8, but there are at least implications from a couple. Ricky Burns, defending his title in Scotland against Kiryl Relikh, may be in the running to defend against the person who previously that belt, Adrien Broner. Broner gave it up on the scales but is now teasing that he’ll remain at 140 instead of going to 147.

There’s also an independent pay-per-view pitting past-their-prime Puerto Rican fighters Juan Manuel Lopez and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. against each other. And then Juan Francisco Estrada will be making his debut at 115 after dropping his two title belts at 112, hoping that his move to junior bantamweight could get him in a fight with Carlos Cuadras for the right to have the winner get a rematch with Roman Gonzalez.

On Oct. 15 in the United Kingdom, Tony Bellew will defend his cruiserweight title against B.J. Flores. Bellew was once a light heavyweight contender until he learned that he couldn’t contend against Adonis Stevenson. He moved up to 200, and two years later he surprised with a third-round stoppage of Ilunga Makabu that landed him a vacant belt. Flores lost to Danny Green in 2010, passed the time against lesser opposition for years and then lost a decision — he believes controversially — to Beibut Shumenov last year. At 37, this may be his last chance.

Later that night in Mexico will be two men about half their size: 108-pounder Ganigan Lopez defending his title against Pedro Guevara. They’ve fought once before. Guevara outpointed Lopez in July 2015. Guevara then lost a split decision to Yu Kimura. Lopez edged Kimura by majority decision for the title this past March.

Sadly, there’s not too much beyond that. There’s a title eliminator here, a welterweight prospect there, a cruiserweight contender staying busy elsewhere. Even former middleweight titleholder David Lemieux is merely killing time on Oct. 22 in Montreal, fighting for the second time since his loss to Gennady Golovkin and taking on Cristian Rios instead of the brawl with Curtis Stevens that boxing fans had hoped for.

There’s very little to drive the conversation. Thankfully for us weekly boxing columnists, there’s certain to be other news and there’s absolutely going to be more fights announced over the coming weeks for the remaining months. November and December need to be fleshed out, and what the network budgets can’t handle will instead be slotted into the opening salvo of 2017.

Fighters gotta fight, after all. Most just won’t do it in October.

Writers still gotta write, however. I’ll see you all next week.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com